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Sunday, September 25, 2011

Sunday Times - haven for dubious adverts

Dear Sunday Times internal ombudsman Joe Latakgomo,

Two years ago the story I instigated
was headed Taking
a stand onunsavouryadverts. That was written by your predecessor Thabo Leshilo, who disappeared with out a trace
earlier this year.

It arose after I complained that this
paper, South Africa’s largest weekly with over 3-million
readers, was carrying suspect get-rich-quick ads that could easily result in
unsuspecting investors losing a fortune.

In the story Leshilo wrote, he said that adverts like the rest ofthe paper should be believable.

But the headline certainly wasn’t
because far from taking a stand, the paper continued to accept this type of
adverting in spite of my continuous campaign to get it stopped.

Unfortunately I didn’t keep a copy of the article
and it was nowhere to be found when the Press Council’s deputy ombudsman Dr Johan Retief asked for it.

Stranger still Leshilo
told him that he didn't know what I was talking about.

The latest in the saga is another story,
once again instigated by my complaints. This time it was your handiwork and was
headed Beware
of dubious advertingclaims.

As you rightly said, Suchadvertising erodes the public’strust innewspapers.
But, even more critical, false advertising, or advertising that makes claims
which are patently exaggerated, impacts on consumer confidence.

That’s exactly what I’ve been
trying to tell yourAvusa
Group(Sunday Times,
The Times, Sowetan, etc) for these many months. But from what you wrote
your Group is still refusing to listen.

It is happy to sit back and passed the
buck to the Advertising Standards Authority,
which has the job of policing adverts, although as far as I know it doesn’t go
looking for trouble. It only deals with complaints. So as your papers can’t do
anything decisive about these ads I have just submitted my own complaints to that
body.

The really pathetic part about the
whole issue is that it is the Sunday Times and
other papers in your Group that are publishing this reprehensible stuff that erodes the
public trust in newspapersand not the Advertising
Authority.

So if they had anymorality at all they would put their own house inorder and stop making
excuses.

What’s the point in punting the Sunday Time’s consumer watchdog, Megan Power in whole page adverts all over the place, if
your own papers are making it easy for dodgy, get-rich-quick schemes to be
promoted to a vast audience.

In the same edition of the Sunday Times in which your story appeared mentioning
my complaint there was an ad telling us we couldearn R25 000 per monthfor an investment of just R100 000 with a money back
guarantee.And best of
all this fantastic return involves, No work. No effort. NoHassles.

I challenger you, or any member of Avusa’s staff, to take up this offer, and tell me how
their investment is progressing in a year’s time.

You seem to think that by publishing a WARNING to readers to be careful
about making investments this absolves your papers from any blame if somebody
loses their shirt in one of these schemes.

Clearly they are not a bit bothered abouteroding public
trust innewspapers and it is this kind of attitude that sunk the News of the World.

What makes this even more inexplicable is that
you say that this type of advertising formsonly a small part of the total advertising
revue.So why do the papers stubbornly hang on to something that can
only damage their reputations?

We
will continue as journalists to expose those who cheat and lie to our readers,
those who compromise our integrity and damage our credibility as news sources
for our readers,you wrote.

We
are distressed by the number of scams that infiltrate our pages and cheat our
readers.If that’s the case have
you stopped to think who is aiding and abetting them?

You, or the Royal We,are so distressed that I
wonder how many of these dicey schemes that have been advertised in the Sunday Times and other papers in your group have ever
been investigated by a reporter.

My guess is: absolutely none in the
last two years since I have been monitoring the situation.

Yours watchfully,

Jon, The Poor Man’s Press Ombudsman.

Buy my book 'Where have all the children gone?' on Amazon.com It's a thriller with an underlying love story that defied generations of prejudice.

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About Me

I was born in South Africa just before the Boer War whenever that was?
Started life with a golden spoon in my mouth which made eating rather difficult as a result I was under nourished as a child.
Went to a posh school where I only got moved up a class when my old man donated another sight screen for the cricket pitch.
Career prospects were dismal and I was once turned down for a job in the London sewers. "Too highly qualified;"that’s what they said.
I became a journalist when the Police Force wouldn’t have me.
Like most journos I know nothing about everything but I still write about it.
I decided to have my own blog so I wouldn't have to drink with the editor for hours on end to get my stuff published when according to my independent assessment it’s always of great news value.
My religious beliefs are: You only die once so remember, "You can’t be serious and Have Fun."
NEWS FLASH: I've just been appointed the Poor Man's Press Ombudsman by Presidential Decree (Not to be confused with the PRESS COUNCIL OF SOUTH AFRICA'S, SA Press Ombudsman)